A Deutsche Welle correspondent in Bamenda, Cameroon’s restive North West region has been beaten seriously by soldiers.
Jean Marie Ngong Song is reported by news portal Mimi Mefo Info to be currently receiving treatment for his injuries.
The journalist was beaten on Sunday by soldiers after attending a meeting in the community.
Jean Marie was quoted by the news portal as saying that ” After seating for three hours in the meeting, we decided to lower our face masks to our chin to breathe for few seconds, the moment we stepped out, that is when I was attacked, ALONE.”
According to the journalist his identification documents were seized by the soldiers who forced him to enter a military vehicle.
“I was beaten, my identity card collected. They asked me to go and enter their car, I asked them to tell me what crime I committed. They didn’t. I entered a taxi and left. They interviewed my friends and….they only sent my ID card later,” he narrated.
Jean-Marie Ngong Song “is in serious pain with hearing difficulties”, according to the Cameroon Journalists’ Trade Union.
#Cameroon. Just in: a statement by the Cameroon Journalists’ Trade Union (North West chapter) about Jean-Marie Ngong Song, a freelance reporter with @dw_freedom, who was severely beaten today in #Bambili by state security agents. Authorities must hold these agents to account. pic.twitter.com/gokTrYeNmN
— Angela Quintal (@angelaquintal) May 31, 2020
Journalists continue to suffer persistent harassment and attacks while reporting about happenings in Cameroon.
These attacks and harassment in Cameroon’s English-speaking heartlands of the North-West and South-West regions started in 2016.
Authorities have clamped down on the media’s coverage of the unrest which were triggered by moves by separatists in Anglophone Cameroon to seek independence.
Thousands have died from the violence and crackdown of activities in this region for months now.
Source: Africafeeds.com
